TikTok Is Removing Viral Videos Promoting Osama bin Laden’s Letter

(Bloomberg) -- TikTok is removing videos on its platform that promote Osama bin Laden’s letter justifying the September 11 attacks against the US, saying that the user-generated content “clearly violates” its rules on “supporting any form of terrorism.”

Most Read from Bloomberg

• Aston Martin Owner Lawrence Stroll Sells F1 Team Stake at £1 Billion Valuation

• Backlash Spreads Over Musk’s Endorsement of Antisemitic Post

• Altman Ousted From OpenAI, Board Says It Lost Confidence

• Hamas Mastermind Who Tricked Israel Is Top Target in Gaza Tunnels

• Apple Plans to Make It Easier to Text Between iPhones and Androids

“We are proactively and aggressively removing this content and investigating how it got onto our platform,” TikTok said in a post on X.

TikTok, already facing scrutiny from US lawmakers over possible ties to the Chinese government, said the videos quoting the late al-Qaeda founder were not unique to it and had also appeared on other social media websites.

New Jersey Representative Josh Gottheimer said the videos showed that TikTok was “pushing pro-terrorist propaganda to influence Americans,” adding that the platform should either be banned or sold to an American company.

Social media users rediscovered Bin Laden’s “Letter to America” — translated and published by the Observer in 2002 — amid heated online debate over Israel’s war against Hamas.

The UK newspaper on Wednesday removed the full text of the letter, saying that the transcript had been shared on social media “without the full context” and that it was now directing readers instead to “the news article that originally contextualised it.”

The attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 killed nearly 3,000 people, according to the US Department of State.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

• The Share of Americans Who Are Mortgage-Free Is at an All-Time High

• The Impact and Cost of Musk’s Endorsement of Antisemitism on X

• Why America’s Wind Power Failures Are Good for GE

• Sequoia Icon Michael Moritz Bets $300 Million on Reshaping San Francisco

• At REI, a Progressive Company Warns That Unionization Is Bad for Vibes

©2023 Bloomberg L.P.